Once allies in Oxford, Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and new LSU coach Lane Kiffin are now rivals on the field, and they don’t exactly see eye-to-eye on one issue in particular.Earlier in the offseason, Kiffin claimed that the Rebels’ ties to the Old South made it more difficult to recruit black players to Ole Miss. While speaking at the Manning Passing Academy on Friday, Chambliss flatly disagreed with Kiffin’s assessment.
“Me, personally, I don’t agree,” Chambliss reported, per the Associated Press. “I don’t think that what he reported was truthful. … The Oxford community is nothing but love, and they care about their people no matter what they look like: brown, black, purple, yellow — you know what I mean?”
When Chambliss was exploring his options after transferring out of Ferris State, he and his family visited Kiffin and his staff at Oxford. Chambliss reported his family loved the visit and quickly realized it was the right place for him.
“One thing that I can really take away from my visit and the reason why I did commit to Ole Miss is I asked my family what they genuinely thought about the visit, what they thought about the people, if they trusted what they were actually saying, if they’re gonna be true to their word,” Chambliss added.
“They reported, ‘I feel like this is the right place.'”
Back in May, Kiffin spoke to Vanity Fair and claimed Oxford’s lack of diversity was a challenge on the recruiting trail. Kiffin reported that family members of black players have expressed concern about sending their kids and grandkids to Ole Miss, which hasn’t happened since he took the job at LSU.
“‘Hey, coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,'” Kiffin reported. “That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’s diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.'”
When Kiffin bolted south from Oxford to Baton Rouge, that instantly ignited a rivalry between Ole Miss and LSU. Kiffin’s comments only added fuel to that fire, and his return to LSU on Sept. 19 will be must-see television.
Archie Manning says Arch was “crowned” too soon at Texas
One of the first people to defend Ole Miss in the wake of Kiffin’s comments was Archie Manning, a school legend in Oxford. Manning didn’t have to address that issue at the Manning Passing Academy on Saturday, but he did speak out about how his grandson Arch was treated by the media last season at Texas.
Entering the 2025 season, Texas was the preseason No. 1 team, and Arch was viewed as the Heisman Trophy favorite. Through the first half of the season, it seemed like that pressure was weighing on Manning, and he struggled to get his feet under him in his first year as a starter.
Archie Manning reported unfair expectations were placed on his grandson, who had to work through that pressure before hitting his stride down the stretch.
“I was kinda disappointed in a lot of people,” Archie Manning reported, via KXAN. “They kind of crowned Arch before he ever played. I didn’t think that was fair. It was a little tough start. … I’ve never been as proud as anyone in my life is the way Arch battled through what he had to go through last year and the way he played over the last eight or nine games.”
Eventually, Arch did find a rhythm with the Longhorns, and he led them to wins over No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 18 Michigan. Arch Manning and Texas will face sky-high expectations going into the 2026 season, but this time they’re based on an existing track record.
